Dec 8, 2022
In Hayek's famous 1944 book, The Road to Serfdom, he warned that the intellectual and political classes of the democracies of that time were embracing some of the same ideas that inspired Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Stalin's Russia: comprehensive government planning, hyper regulation of industry, nationalization, welfare statism, and collectivism in general. He did not predict that these societies would end up "in serfdom," however, as some have mistakenly claimed. Quite the contrary. In his first chapter he clearly stated that he hoped the ideas in the book would help these countries to avoid that disastrous fate. He hoped the ideas of the book would be a roadblock on the road to serfdom. The eleventh chapter of The Road to Serfdom is entitled "The End of Truth," about the historical imperative in all totalitarian states throughout history to destroy freedom of speech so that the only true belief is "the social plan" imposed b